The home to inspirational goodness from www.adozenideas.com

February 2013

February 23, 2013

It’s Friday somewhere in the world, right? I started this post yesterday but then Abby came home from camp earlier than I expected. I put is aside to go listen to stories about how boys are SUCH sooks and the girls kicked ass on all the camp activities including the confidence course. Boys are so useless, Mum.

Paul helping unload the trailer load of bags he transported to and from camp.

2. Small things make people happy.

Well, it’s a big thing with lots of little things in it. Jacob washed windows, mowed lawns and has even been collecting aluminium cans to recycle to save up for a fish tank.

And this is a story full of small blessings really – from start to finish.

Originally Jacob was saving and watching trademe, and he found a fishtank he wanted but it was too much money. He asked me for a loan. I refused, giving him the speech about his income not being adequate enough to cover said loan. The poor boy was so disappointed but it was a good budgeting lesson, I’m thinking to myself whilst trying to get over the guilt of turning him down.

Which is about when he heard about a competition on the ZM radio station called “Fix my Life” The effort shifted to winning the competition. He set an alarm to wake early enough each day to ring through. He used 2 phones to try, on checking the recent calls on my phone he was trying 60-70 times each time that competition aired. And that was on just one of the phones.

He eventually got through. He told his story and they told him to hold. He did. Until his battery went flat. The devastation in this house was huge.

Cool thing though, ZM rang him back – listened to his story and gave him the rest of the money he needed to buy his tank. First blessing.

He placed a bid on the tank he wanted – there were several other people bidding so he was nervous. On the day the auction ended, noone else bid. Second blessing.

The owners of the tank took it apart and drove an hour south to us to deliver it. They kept the water in buckets so the fish wouldn’t go into shock being put into new water, they bought everything needed, they spent 1.5 hours setting it up for Jacob and gave him all their spare stuff, including all their fish and lengthy typed out instructions on how to look after the heated, filtered tank. It was totally above and beyond what we expected.

There are good people in this world. And the smile says it all.

Jacob next to the tank, with cabinet, that he won on trademe after saving and winning a radio competition. Hard work pays off.

3. When one door shuts, another opens.

My regular travel and weekend work has had to stop, due to things going on here at home. I’ve had to turn down a lot of teaching opportunities. It’s sad, but you have to do what is right for those at home.

But as this door shuts, another opens. I was contacted by large US manufacturer, Prima Marketing, to put on an event here in New Zealand. It’s a huge event that already has lots of interest in it. It’s perfect for me right now because I can do all the organising at home beforehand and the travel is minimal at the time. Just what I needed.

Last but not least - I might be 40 and I might have little legs, but I can still run with the best of them. In fact I busted apart my 2.4km time this week, keeping a pace that led the pack (all 2 of them) right through the entire course, up hills, down hills and sprinting to the finish.

I could hear the footsteps behind me and that pushed me to go faster, what I didn’t realise was that they were trying to keep up – I guess all 3 of us were pushed to beat our times.

Photo taken by Karl, great PT, not so flash on finding the focus… Laters.

February 15, 2013

Starting up Five for Friday again. Because I’m back in my scrap room, because I have photos to share and because I have too much to say.

Things I have discovered this week:

1. I have discovered the best way to make meatloaf.Thank you Pinterest for the idea to make my usual meatloaf mix and put it in muffin tins. It is easy to make, quicker to cook than usual meatloaf and way easier to make additions such as a sprinkling of bacon or swirl of BBQ sauce on top. Success. Tick.

2. A lack of calcium will cause leg cramps at night.Upon suffering wicked cramps in my calf muscles at night I researched the possible cause – by using the internet, by asking my trainer and by asking fellow fitness friends at MotivateMe. Seems there could be 4 possible reasons. Lack of either water, Potassium, Magnesium or Calcium. I get a whole lot of the first three, but when I’m eating really super clean, I barely have any calcium. About 30% of what I should be. Solution? More pizza, cheese, chocolate and icecream. I wish and if only. Looks like it’s calcium tabs for a while.

(In fabulous True Scrap style these classes are shown live but also recorded so you can have afterwards access – for more info visit True Stamp here… 50% off finishes at Fri 9pm NZ time, midight PST today, so this finishes soon, and you must use the code SWEET at checkout to see the discount.).

4. My 12 year old son has decided he wants to do the Bachelor of Digital Media when he is older. Contributions to the technology fund in this house gratefully taken. He is already needing technology beyond anything we have here. This kid is clever. He already downloads games, enters through some portal, Ok so he does some computer stuff I don’t understand, and changes the codes etc to make the game suit himself. And he loves art and drawing. He could really do this. TheBad news: This is going to cost me a fortune in keeping up with things so he can stay on top of this hobby that might very well become his career. The Good news: Imagine having a totally capable IT guy as part of the family. Oh yes. Magical thinking.

And my last discovery for this week:

5. Exercising really is good for the soul.See this kid – he’s my oldest, he is amazing, generous and has the most determined personality. Life doesn’t always serve him the best deals but seeing his trainer for a one-on-one boxing and training session each week is the best medicine ever. Thank goodness for endorphins released during exercise, thank goodness for a kid that is always determined to put in his best and thank goodness for the good people in the world, like Karl – an amazing trainer that always has a plan to make Jacob laugh while getting through gruelling workouts that make Jacob proud.

February 13, 2013

While most people would be thrilled to receive a box of new Tattered Angels colours in the mail, I admit to a little freaky freakout dance, don’t ask me to show you what that looks like, when mine arrived in January. I was 4 days away from getting on a plane to the USA and had managed to leave a thousand things to do until the last minute and the box of colours was only going to add more.

I pulled out what was bound to be my favourite thing, a ‘Turquoise Precious Stone Aging System’ and got to work on a canvas that was also included in the box.

Despite my initial freakout at the lack of time, my love for what I call ‘Happy Grunge’ soon took care of what kind of look the project would take. It’s a look that Finnabair made popular within scrapbooking circles but it’s quickly taken hold and has been interlaced and incorporated in all sorts of ways within projects and layouts worldwide now.

I used the instructions on the Tattered Angels packet and created a turquoise background, no surprises there, and started to layer the goodness on. Older Prima canvas items, older random Prima flowers, lots of chipboard from Imaginarium Designs and some of the trinkets I have been selling since SENZ last year.

Once I made the start, I added a whole lot of adhesive, some leaves and wire, Tattered Angels colours including all the turquoise paints plus an old favourite ‘Key Lime’, some Rae Cooper inspired Rub’nBuff, a dash of 8-year-old-daughter-Abby-helping, some letting go of worry and just having fun, some drying time on the trampoline out in the late evening sun and finally this is what I came up with for the Tattered Angels booth.

Happy Days. We’ve had a heck of time in the Howard household recently (most of which I don’t talk about on facebook or my blog. Some stuff just doesn’t need to be made public, just remember us in your positive thoughts next time you are having words to your own personal ‘big guy’), so this serves as a little reminder that positivity plays a huge role in our everyday life. Given the last few ingredients of what went into this canvas, I think it reflects it wonderfully.

February 09, 2013

The Prima booth at CHA… a little Prima wonderland in the middle of a huge tradeshow full of gorgeous scrapbooking products and Prima’s definitely were some of the most gorgeous there. I only saw 2 days of CHA and spent most of the time here, at the Prima booth.

The inside was full of amazing projects, products, chandeliers and other pretty stuff. The outside was where we set up our demo table to show everyone the amazing Prima releases and it was also a place for Leeza Gibbons to sign her book. I chatted to Leeza a little before she was swamped by the public, she is a gorgeous, gracious lady with time to chat to anyone that takes time to chat to her. She was genuinely enthused about her new Prima product line too, which was very cool.

Janine & I with Leeza, jsut before everyone else figured out she was there!

It wasn’t long before we gained our demo area back from the crowds of people chatting to Leeza and then it was all on. This is Anna (Finnabair) setting up for her project, a gorgeous headband. I gained so much out of meeting Finn. I was inspired by her amazing use of embellishments. I was enthused by her “just get it done, enjoy it” attitude, and I was enthralled by long car-rides learning about Poland. I did my best to memorise as much of the info as I could, and those that know me know that I don’t do geography or history detail very well, in the ear and out the other, but I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Poland and was able to impress my hubby with some very cool facts when I got home. Our chats were a success, Anna, Paul was impressed.

I know this is sounding like the Finnabair-fan-show right now but I have to show you this.

Just a little fun piece that she whipped up before the show. I know. Boom. Serious talent, right there.

It was a very cool few days spent with the Prima staff. Those of you that are retailers probably deal with some of these people – each one does an amazing job and I was thrilled to be able to finally meet them in person.

Gorgeous team, rocking the emerald green – did you know it’s the 2013 Pantone colour of the year? I know. Rocking those trends again.